Inflection Takeover: The AI Assembly Line Ends With Microsoft, Google and Meta
Mar 20, 2024 - bloomberg.com
Inflection, an artificial-intelligence startup based in Palo Alto, California, was making significant strides in the AI industry with its chatbot Pi, which was being developed into a personal assistant. The company had raised $1.3 billion in a single fundraising round and had amassed a large cache of computing power, including thousands of graphics-processing unit chips from Nvidia Corp. Inflection was on track to surpass OpenAI’s free version of ChatGPT with its own model, built from scratch.
However, in a surprising turn of events, Inflection announced that its co-founders Mustafa Suleyman and Karén Simonyan, along with most of its employees, were joining Microsoft Corp. Suleyman is set to lead Microsoft's consumer AI business. This move came as a shock to the industry given Inflection's previously smooth path to success.
Key takeaways:
Inflection, an AI startup, was making significant progress in building a chatbot named Pi, even raising $1.3 billion in a single fundraising round.
The company had amassed a large amount of computing power and was on track to surpass OpenAI’s free version of ChatGPT with its own model built from scratch.
Despite its success, it was announced that Inflection's co-founders and most of its employees are joining Microsoft Corp.
Co-founder Mustafa Suleyman will lead Microsoft's consumer AI business.
